by Neha Yazmin
BLOODLESS
Witch’s Blood, Book 1
NEHA YAZMIN
Copyright 2018 Neha Yazmin
Kindle Edition
* * *
This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
* * *
Books by Neha Yazmin
Paranormal Romance: Magical Bloodlines Universe
Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation
Poison Blood, Book 2: Absolution
Poison Blood, Book 3: Prophecy
Poison Blood, Book 4: Apocalypse
Witch’s Blood, Book 1: Bloodless
Witch’s Blood, Book 2: Bloodshed
Witch’s Blood, Book 3: Bloodlust (Coming Soon)
~
Contemporary Romance:
Chasing Pavements (Soulmates Saga, Book 1)
Make You Feel My Love (Soulmates Saga, Book 2)
Someone Like You (Soulmates Saga, Book 3)
If I Say Yes (Love & Alternatives #1)
If I Say No (Love & Alternatives #2 ~ Coming Soon)
* * *
~ Dedication ~
This is for my Poison Blood series fans. Hope you enjoy it!
Sign up to my mailing list to stay up-to-date with new releases and special offers
Click Here to Subscribe!
And follow me on:
Twitter
Goodreads
Instagram
Facebook
Website
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Books by Neha Yazmin
Questions with the Author
Poison Blood Series
Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation
CHAPTER 1: I AM A VAMPIRE
CHAPTER 2: I’M NEVER COMING BACK
CHAPTER 3: CHRISTIAN
CHAPTER 4: AT LEAST I DIDN’T DIE A VIRGIN
Chapter 1
“YOU SAID I COULD CALL YOU IF I EVER NEEDED YOUR HELP.”
The voice of the caller isn’t one I’d normally recognise immediately, nor is her number familiar to my phone.
In the last seven months, I’ve given my number to several people and said, “Call me if you ever need my help” but not once did I ask for their number.
It wasn’t because I didn’t expect them to call, or because I was new to this solo witch thing and forgot that I’d need to have them in my digital Phone Book, but because I knew that I’d see them calling me the moment they decided to get in touch.
Just like I had a premonition of this caller giving me a ring.
“Hi, Jax. What’s up?” I answer cheerily.
Jax Gilmore is a 16-year-old witch from Mayfair, London. She’d learned some very important – and very deadly – information seven months ago, and I had to go wipe her memory of it.
It was my first solo mission.
“I need your help, Amber,” Jax replies in a tight voice. “To find a missing person.”
“Jen,” I assume.
Jen is Jax’s older and more powerful sister who hasn’t been seen since last November.
She’d used a transporter spell to escape a crisis situation but didn’t go home that night.
Or a week later.
That was around about the time that I’d gone to temper with Jax’s memory and she’d assumed I was there because of her missing sister.
After discreetly deleting the discriminating memories from her mind, I’d offered to help her find Jen.
“Have you tried a locator spell?” I’d asked.
“Duh!” the teen had replied, rolling her eyes. “It was the first thing I tried last night!”
I felt appalled and showed it. My magic stirred in my veins.
“Your sister’s been gone for over a week and you only tried a locator spell last night?” I shook my head.
“Hey!” Jax protested, offended. “She’s a grown adult–”
“Surely, if she’d left for a cruise, you’d know,” I snapped.
“I wouldn’t actually.” Jax scowled. “It’s not like she always tells me where she’s going! She went to work last Tuesday and didn’t come home. I thought she’d gone off on some work-related trip.”
Exasperated and realising that arguing with a naïve teenager wasn’t helping anyone find anything, I willed my magic to calm and asked Jax, “So what did the locator spell say?”
“See for yourself.”
Jax took me to Jen’s massive bedroom on the first floor of their Mayfair mansion. By massive bedroom, I mean the entire first floor was her bedroom, complete with window balcony, luxury en-suite, gigantic furniture and gorgeous sofas and chairs at one end of the large, airy space.
On the glass coffee table in the centre of the sitting area, there were two maps, each with a locator stone on them.
Taking a seat on one of the plush futons, I examined the map closest to me. It was a map of the UK; the locator stone was sitting on London.
The other piece of paper was a blown up map of the capital city. The stone’s position indicated that Jen was in Mayfair.
Upper Brook Street to be precise.
Jen and Jax’s street…
“She’s home?” I asked, perplexed. “She’s here?” Instinctively, I glanced around the room, as though I’d be able to see the other Gilmore girl.
Jax nodded.
“I’ve tried the locator spell loads of times,” she informed me. “Same thing each time.”
“Let me try,” I said eagerly, reaching for the locator stone.
“Be my guest, waste your time,” she crooned with a shrug.
I put the stone – it’s more like a grey-blue pebble, actually – on the edge of the map of London and cast the locator spell with Jen in mind.
The stone glided across the smooth paper, heading for Mayfair.
It stopped over Jax’s street.
“She’s home,” I sighed, eyeing the map anxiously.
“You think she’s been here the whole time?” Jax murmured her query. “But I haven’t seen or heard anything…”
I inhaled deeply and faced the young witch.
Maybe Jen didn’t use a transporter spell the day she went missing…
“Maybe she made herself invisible and used a cloaking spell so no one would be able to detect or track her,” I mumbled, unsure.
“And she doesn’t know how to reverse the spells!” Jax surmised.
“Or she doesn’t have enough power to do it.”
“I bet you could you do it!” Jax exclaimed excitedly.
“I could try…” I said hesitantly.
Inside, I knew I’d be able to make Jen visible in my sleep – after all, I’m the most powerful witch you’d ever come by – but I didn’t want Jax to know that, not after I’d spent the last few minutes removing dangerous secrets from her mind.
Including secrets about me…
“You’re the most powerful witch in the country, Amber. One of the most gifted in Europe.”
I didn’t argue with that – that’s been public knowledge for some time now.
Everything else about my power, I’d like t
o keep on the down low.
“I’ll do my best.” That wasn’t a lie. I planned to bring Jen back in a jiffy and act shocked by my own success, act like it was a fluke.
But for some reason, I couldn’t reverse the spells. My powers huffed and puffed, irked by the failure.
Jax has been trying to get her sister back ever since.
Jen was still nowhere to be found.
Now, the young witch says through the phone connection, “Jen’s a lost cause. And she’s not really missing–”
“So you’ve given up on her?” My voice is high, sharp. Semi-hostile.
If my brother Aiden became invisible, there’s no way I’d give up on getting him back.
Never.
He’s all the family I’ve got left.
Just like Jen is Jax’s only family.
“Of course I’m still trying to undo what she’s done,” Jax insists. “Everyday, in fact. But I’ve given up hope that I’ll see her again.” Her voice is low, subdued.
“Never give up hope, Jax.” After a few seconds of silence, I ask, “So who’s the missing person, then?”
“This girl that goes to my school–”
“Your school?” I probe sceptically.
Jax doesn’t go to school – she dropped out before even sitting her GCSEs – and as far as I know, doesn’t have a job, either.
Jen used to work, but the organisation she served… well, let’s just say that it ceased operations last November.
The same time that Jen ‘vanished’.
If Jen wasn’t invisible, she and Jax wouldn’t need to work now, anyway. They have a trust fund that’ll provide for them, and for generations to come.
“This girl at my former school,” Jax rephrases. “Simone. Her older sister Imogen disappeared three days ago.”
I’m not surprised that she didn’t say, ‘My friend Simone’s older sister’. I don’t think Jax has too many friends, not with the smartass, rebellious attitude she has.
Add to that her snazzy home and the OTT riches, the lack of friends probably isn’t through lack of trying on her part.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that Jax left school because she was being bullied.
“Missing for three days?” I say. “Her family can go to the police now. They’ll take it seriously if she’s been gone that long.”
“They did go to the police,” Jax tells me, exasperated. “They say she may have just gone off on her own. She’s over 21, an adult… Besides, the police won’t be able to find her, even if they tried.”
“Have a little faith–”
“You don’t get it,” she cuts me off, her tone annoyed. “Magic was involved. Dark magic.”
“I beg your pardon?” I’m not sure why my voice went almost hostile when I said that.
“Imogen was taken from her art studio,” Jax tells me, lowering her voice. “I sensed dark magic there. I think a dark witch has her.”
Dark witches are magical witches that do evil things.
There aren’t that many of them around, and they’re nowhere near powerful enough to do any real damage.
But the use of dark magic is a concern, especially if I’m to believe Jax’s suspicions about it being a tool in abducting a young woman.
“Why would a dark witch be interested in Imogen?” I wonder aloud.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you, already? She’s a witch.”
Chapter 2
IMOGEN, IMOGEN, IMOGEN… Hmm, rings a bell…
“Wait, not Imogen Hardy?” I gasp.
“Yeah,” Jax tells me, her voice a little faint. “You know her?”
“Not personally, but–”
I stop before divulging that the Hardys were a part of the organisation I worked for until it closed down at the end of last year.
Our mandate was to protect humans from supernatural threats.
The Hardys weren’t part of the inner circle, but they were loyal to us and under our protection.
As a result, hardly anyone within the supernatural community knows they’re witches.
I only know because I’d been tasked to contact the witches and tell them that our organisation had shut down.
So, I’m a bit taken aback that it’s Jax contacting me about Imogen’s disappearance and not the Hardys themselves.
“But what?” Jax enquires. “How do you know Imogen?”
“She was in the news,” I lie. “Years ago,” I add after a moment, realising that Imogen’s disappearance probably hasn’t been picked up by the media yet. “About some strange activities around her house. I can’t remember the exact details.”
“Right…” It doesn’t sound like I’ve convinced her.
I wish I was a better liar!
I really don’t want Jax to know the truth about the Hardys. From the moment I met Jax, there was just something about her I didn’t trust.
I don’t think she’s evil or anything, but because of her youth and fearlessness, it’s not safe to disclose sensitive information to her.
“Have you told Imogen’s parents? About the dark magic, I mean.”
A heavy sigh.
“They’re convinced that no one knows they’re witches and so the supernatural has nothing to do with Imogen’s disappearance.”
That explains why the Hardys didn’t contact me about their missing daughter.
“It’s only Simone that’s suspicious,” Jax adds.
And Simone probably doesn’t know how to get in touch with me.
“Simone got told off for telling me their secret,” Jax goes on. “But she didn’t know who else to turn to – her mum and dad think she’s being paranoid and I’m the only other witch she knows. Turns out, she knew what I was all along and she thought I knew about her, too.”
“Did you know Simone was a witch?”
“No. Guess Simone was better at keeping secrets than I was.”
“That’s hard to believe,” I say sarcastically.
“So, will you help us?”
“Of course.”
*
Walking into Imogen’s studio that afternoon, a prickling feeling climbs up my spine, making me shudder. The magic in my blood crackles, makes my skin tingle.
“I guess that’s what you meant about sensing dark magic,” I say to Jax.
She and Simone were waiting for me outside Imogen’s studio when I arrived.
Simone had a spare key to let us in. The girl’s tall and skinny like a size zero model, with straight brown hair.
She seems twice the height of her former schoolmate.
Jax had been average height and size when I first met her seven months ago, but over the course of this year, she’s lost weight and her features have hardened.
Therefore, her cool haircut seems to suit her better now. I’d coined it as pixie-punk when I first saw her:
One of her dark eyes is completely hidden behind the curtain of hair that sweeps diagonally across her forehead, the ends poking her cheekbones. The hair on the other half of her head is very short, as though she shaved it off not long ago.
But I’d forgotten how white her hair is.
Like it’s never seen colour.
It has seen colour, though: It used to be dark before she meddled with magic and forces that were too much for her and they ended up bleaching her hair a shocking white.
“You can feel it, too?” Jax asks me. “The dark magic?”
“Let’s just say, I’m not getting a good vibe from this place.”
Simone half-smiles at me.
“That’s what I said when I first came here after Imogen went missing,” she murmurs, her fair skin pale and ghostly from worry over her sister. “But Jacqueline can actually–”
“It’s Jax!” the other girl rebukes. “We’re not at school anymore.”
“Sorry,” Simone mumbles. “Jax actually felt the dark magic. Saw it.”
I abandon my inspection of the black-and-white photographs on the wall – Imogen’s work; bridges, trees, canals
and a very sexy, handsome guy – and turn to Jax.
“You felt and saw dark magic?” I ask her, bewildered.
The girl nods reluctantly, like she doesn’t trust me with details about her abilities the same way I don’t trust her with mine.
“How does it feel and look like?” I press, my curiosity heightened.
Jax hesitates.
My forehead creases.
Eventually, she explains, “It’s like you’re really cold, freezing. Skin crawling with hate. Eyes straining to see through masses of dark shadows. It just feels sinister and evil.”
“Wow,” I gasp. “I don’t feel any of that.”
You’d think I would, with all the power and magic that lives within me.
“That’s because you don’t have the same gift as Jax,” Simone pipes up.
I’m about to question Jax further about her new gift but I catch the warning look she throws at Simone. It says, ‘Don’t say anymore’.
“What are you hiding, Jax?” I ask her in a strict tone.
“About what?” she asks innocently.
“You know what I mean!” I take a deep, calming breath. “If I’m going to help you find Imogen, the two of you need to be completely honest with me.”
“We are–” Jax protests but Simone cuts her off with, “Tell her, Jax.”
A curtain drapes over Jax’s face.
She won’t say a word.
“I know all about Jax’s gift,” I exclaim, putting on a superior edge to my tone and a smug expression on my face. Hoping to psych her into spilling.
It doesn’t work; she remains stubbornly silent.
“She’s like a seer in reverse,” I continue informatively. “She sees the past just like I see the future. All she needs to do is touch a person or an object, and she can see significant moments from their pasts.”
The tactile aspect isn’t necessary for me; I can see the futures of people I’ve yet to even meet.
Unfortunately, my gift of foresight is limited to people – I can’t see what the future has in store for non-humans.
And if a non-human becomes entangled in a human’s future, I can’t see their futures anymore.
“Well, then,” Jax says with a shrug, “there’s nothing to show-and-tell here. Come on Simone. Let’s leave the super-witch to it.”
